Notebook of mistakes | 错题本

We learned the phrase 错题本 this past summer in China attending two-week XDF summer classes. It means “wrong solution notes” or “error management book”, meant for you to keep track of where your mistakes are and to make sure they do not happen again. This is used in all classes we attended: math, Chinese and English. They are all formatted in similar templates for documenting: date, problem, error, why it happen, and what is the correct answer. Doing this systematically helps focus on the target areas and improves efficiency. Basically you are customizing the learning for yourself. Those so-called artificial intelligence guided learning will not do better than this.

To dedicate a specific notebook to your mistakes is quite a good idea. It may seem unusual for those who like to move fast and break things. But this is definitely indispensable when we are building a skill.

Who says that error management book or notebook of mistakes should only be applicable to school kids? Could we also expand that concept to life and work? Probably.